NSA talks called off: Pak editorials offer contradictory views

The editorials, which have appeared in various Pakistani newspapers, have offered contradicting views on who is to be blamed for the cancellation of the NSA-level talks between the two Asian neighbours.

Karachi: The editorials, which have appeared in various Pakistani newspapers, have offered contradicting views on who is to be blamed for the cancellation of the NSA-level talks between the two Asian neighbours.

The Dawn, in its editorial, blamed Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for the cancellation of the talks.

"There's no point in talking about Kashmir. Not now. But there is a way to do it. And it's not the way Nawaz has gone about it," the editorial said.

"There were basically two things Nawaz had to play off each other in Ufa: terrorism and Kashmir," the editorial added while further blaming the Pakistan Premier.

The editorial suggested that Sharif should have rather included the Kashmir issue in the agreement reached between the two Prime Ministers in Ufa, Russia, last month, adding that a sixth point in the agreement "about Kashmir - or Balochistan or Samjhota" would have been "some kind of red meat".

It said, "Either Ufa had to be kept vague or it had to have specificity that was not just Indian but Pakistani too."

"He chose to be greedy. Or hasty. Or, sadly, just plain stupid," the editorial said of Sharif.

It further said that Sharif seemed to have a vision but without any plan lined up ahead.

"We've seen it twice now: he seems to have the vision, but he has no plan. Last time, last year, he was swatted away for being in too much of a hurry and getting Shahbaz involved," said the editorial.

A second newspaper, The Express Tribune, questions the "nature of nationalism in India", laying emphasis on fact and context.

"What is the nature of our nationalism here in India? It is anti-Pakistan and anti-China. We always have to be anti-Pakistan even if there is damage to us or no benefit to India in such a position (and there is zero benefit to India in not allowing old Sartaj Aziz to meet the blowhards of the Hurriyat)," said the editorial.

The editor quoted an anchor in India as saying during a debate, 'we all are agreed in the studio that Pakistan is to blame if the talks collapse'.

"It was just assumed that because this was an India versus Pakistan issue, all Indians would or should back the government position," said the editorial.

The editorial further said, "The assumption is that the lines have been drawn and the two sides have gone to battle. All of us, whether analysts or politicians or citizens or cricketers or housewives, must see the other side as an enemy and must reject everything it says or does even if we gain nothing from it. I am no longer able to subscribe to this stupidity. This makes TV appearances difficult for me."

The editorial in The Express Tribune also said that it was difficult to be television analysts in times when India and Pakistan were at some sort of a war with each other.